On Tuesday evening, at the only meeting of Oconee County Council this month, we heard from Michelle McCollum with the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor as she pitched her recommendations to council regarding how to better capitalize on the tourism our area offers.

Arguably the most revered president of our nation, Abraham Lincoln, said, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

In the wake of gunman Dylann Roof killing nine people in a Charleston church, many have emphasized — including a Washington Post guest editorial that ran in this spot Wednesday — the need for more rigid gun laws in America.

Those who have spent any time on social media, or perhaps even in the parking lots of nearby Wal-Marts, have surely seen Confederate flag defenders crying foul about the push to abolish what they consider a symbol of heritage.